NAPE calls government’s intention to extend the divided highway beyond Whitbourne using a P3—or public-private partnership—model “highway robbery” and is promising action.
The provincial government signaled that it is considering a P3 model for the building and maintenance of extensions to the divided highway—something that immediately drew the union’s ire.
NAPE President Jerry Earle met with minister John Abbott last week at Abbott’s invitation.
Abbott told reporters on Friday that they had a good conversation, but he declined further comment.
(John Abbott. File photo.)
Earle says the meeting was anything but positive.
“That meeting…was not positive at all,” says Earle. We made it very clear to the minister that we are not prepared to give up one more kilometer of highway to some backroom deal.”
The union is putting together a media campaign and Earle is promising push-back.
“Labour relations have been relatively stable in NL for the last couple of years. My message to this government (is) if you want to see a different side of the labour relations world, keep going (on) the path you’re going.”
Opposition Infrastructure critic Barry Petten is slamming the minister for his recent public endorsement of public-private partnerships.
Petten is wondering if P3s are the future of highway infrastructure in the province and he wants to know what safeguards are in place to ensure the project doesn’t become what he calls “another Liberal P3 fiasco.”
